Header image header image 2  
Talkin' Turkey
The Trip

This year’s gang included everyone from last year, except Ron was able to re-join the group to make a total of 8 FishingPals.  Pete and I drove up to Gravenhurst and had dinner at Boston Pizza.  We got up there a little early and needed to kill a little time before Eric and George arrived.  The restaurant is right on the water, and they have an outdoor patio.  We may have found a new tradition for next year.  We met up with everyone at the cottage, and the Black-and-Tan tradition was revived.  David may have a future in bartending…

We had an early departure on Saturday and made our way to North Bay for coffee.  The next stop was Chelmsford to gas up and pick up some lunch at Subway.  We made another wrong turn in Sudbury, but we were able to re-calculate a new route with the GPS.  Driving through Sudbury was probably better than driving around it.  It may have been slower driving, but the shorter distance makes up for it.  After lunch, we made our way to Gogama for some bait, and then we were off to Sashihaw.  We met Andre on the road, and got a glimpse of the Geo.  Looks like fun!  Hamburgers went down well for dinner.

   b&t
Sunday morning fishing proved to be unsuccessful, except for some pike.  We were greeted by a surprise visit from a small gang from Timmins.  It was a little birthday bash to celebrate Fred’s 50th year.  We did a little trap shooting in the afternoon, where Andre proved to be the most accomplished sniper.  The rest of us were struggling to get a bead on that clay pigeon!  We were left with Rice Krispie treats, carrot cake, and peanut butter squares after everyone departed.  Dinner for the night was deep fried turkey.  Our turkey was soaking in the brine solution overnight, and was about to get a taste of hot oil!  The boys started working on getting the turkey derrick working with pulleys and rope.  It was an engineering marvel.  Our turkey turned out pretty good, except that we forgot the ‘bag of bits’ in the body cavity.  It didn’t seem to make much of a difference in cooking the bird.  Next time, we will need to let it drain for the full half hour….  In the end, we got a pretty moist turkey, which was completed in about an hour from the time that it hit the oil.  Impressive!
Sun1 Sun2 Sun3 Sun4
Our day trip to Hardiman Lake on Tuesday was another winner.  The weather started out looking a little scary, but in the end, it was a nice sunny day, and the rain coats weren’t really needed.  Andre, Ed, Richard, Remi & Alisha joined the gang that went out to Hardiman.  Thankfully, we had the four wheeler and Geo Tracker to haul most of the stuff to the lake.  I don’t see how we could have done it without them.  The boat with David, George, and Fred turned out to be the bassmasters that day.  Ben’s fish dinner was safe again for this year!  We would save the fish for Wednesday’s dinner since we had a mountain of spaghetti to eat.
Tue1 Tue2 Tue3
On Wednesday, we were able to tie the boats together and catch a few walleye on Sashihaw before we headed back to the camp for the evening.  Ben’s annual fish dinner turned out well.  We had a slight timing issue as we had to wait for some fish to thaw out, but otherwise, the steamed fish, broccoli and rice was a hit.  We might need to add more broccoli to the grocery list as it was devoured.  Seems that the bad reputation that broccoli has is over-exaggerated.

More hi-lites:

  • The boys cleaned up the shoreline by getting rid of an old boat which was becoming an eyesore.  It’s amazing what a few big rocks could do.
  • Hula Boy worked on his clutching abilities with the Geo. 
  • The pontoon boat was working this year.  C’mon Ed, are you sure it was broken?
  • The euchre champs were defeated by the upstart team of Peter and Andrew. 
  • We were regaled by tales of Ed’s pontoon adventures. 
  • Catapulting rocks into the lake.
  • Ron caught the first trout on Elbow Lake ever since we’ve started coming out.
  • Had the right amount of spaghetti sauce this year.
  • We didn’t catch many walleye in Sashihaw until the last day.  At least we know they’re still in there, and with less pike in the lake, they should be there next year too!
  • It may be the last year at the Hungry Bear with the new highway being built.
More1 More2 More3 More4

The FishingPals want to thank Andre and Ed for their great hospitality and for the use of the camp again.  It is by far, one of the best fishing vacations that we can experience. Don't forget to order this year's DVD!

dvd

 

 

 

 
     
©
 Copyright 2010 FishingPals